Adventures with Mommy

Saturday night, my mom arrived from Chicago and apparently brought the dismal, grey Chicago weather with her. It seems to be that every time she comes to visit, she does not get to enjoy the wonderful weather that Denver constantly brags about and she never gets to see the mountains. After picking her up from the airport, I brought her to a little Irish pub for some pints and appetizers. We spent her time out here apartment hunting, shopping, eating, and of course drinking. We had a fun night at Fado with Clancy boys. Got to introduce my mom to some loud, Irish drinking songs and even showed off my skills on the drum up on stage. As always, it was a blast at Fado. And I even got a cool T-shirt for playing the drum. Gosh, it seems like so long ago that she was here now, I started writing this post last week but have been so busy with various things that I never got around to finish. We also went to Boulder for lunch one day, watched the Sopranos, watched The Amazing Race, had High Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel, watched more TV, packed, had coffee with Danielle, and there's got to be lots more. The week went by too fast. Good news is, both of my parents are coming out here for Easter, so I will get to see both of them in no time!

Word of the Day

Keep this word in mind for your St. Patrick's Day hangover:

crapulous: sick from, or marked by, excessive drinking.

Cold again.

So, the past week has been dominated by snow and wind and chilly temperatures. I hate it. I have been so extremely spoiled by Denver's weather that when we actually get winter weather in winter (who would have thought?) I get all sorts of crabby. I have to say today it was in the low-50s, which would have been great, but there were horrible winds that totally ruined it all.

Anyone watch The Apprentice? On this week's episode, did anyone happen to notice the stack of 6 bagel halves that Brent prepared with cream cheese and then proceeded to eat? I loved how the cameras zoomed in on the stack of bagels. I also love how everyone hates Brent.

I guess it's been a while since I've written... This weekend was cold, so stayed in quite a bit. But, I am now a stout beer aficionado. Well, at least that what I like to think. Went to an Irish pub in Boulder and taste tested Guinness vs. Murphy's. And ... the verdict is... I like Murphy's better. I still like Guinness but I think I like the taste of the Murphy's a little more. Anyways, now I am ready for blind taste testing.

On a sour, very sour note, my laptop went all ape-shit on me two days ago, and I ended up having to reload the whole darn thing and starting anew. Spent an afternoon waiting for my Apple Genius Bar appointment, only to get called up to the bar, and apparently I (emphasis on "I") fixed the problem. I guess I'm an apple genius now too. The genius (might I add he was wearing a kilt- a utilikilt!) I was working with at the apple store offered me an application. Of course jokingly offered it, because the geniuses there are quite pompous and higher-than-thou geniuses. They like using words and phrases like "kernel panic" and "catalog hierarchy". Anyways, I'm still having issues with my applications working correctly, but have my old desktop up and running now, so I've been tediously working between my laptop, desktop, external hard drive, and back up CD's. It looks like Apple threw up all over my table. After spending all day trying to fix things AND get some work done, I realized at 930pm that I was still sitting there in my pj's and it was time to take a shower and relax for the rest of the night. So, I'm currently drinking a Budweiser and catching up on my TV shows.

I am sooooooo excited for the upcoming holiday this weekend. It is St. Patrick's Day and for the first time ever, I have a party to attend. Can you believe an Irish girl like myself has never had a St. Patrick's Day party to attend or host? Well, it's true. I will be eating some yummy Shepherd's Pie and Irish Soda bread, as well as numerous other Irish treats, I'm sure, and, did I mention, beer?? I'm so excited. You just can not beat a combination of potatoes, beer, and soda bread.

THEN, on Saturday, my mom is coming for a little visit. I have lots of fun things planned for her visit including an evening at Fado's to sing-along with my Clancy boys, High Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel, and I will finally take her to my beloved city, Boulder.

Other than the computer angst, my week has been flying by. I have been looking for apartments, which I have realized is a totally daunting task, especially when you aren't really sure if you want to become a city-chick or stay a suburbanite.

Random Thoughts

•Hamburger Helper doesn't taste as good as I remembered.

•I think someone should do a study on mass merchandiser's patrons and their speed of walking. For instance I think the walking speed of a Wal-Mart customer is about 1/3 the walking speed of a Target customer. I walk at a normal pace, perhaps a little faster than normal, and was at Wal-Mart this evening behind someone with a 3.5 foot wide ass (so, I couldn't get past him) walking slower than a herd of turtles. That just annoys me to no end. Not only is the person rude for not staying to one side of the aisle, but also is completely clueless that he may be causing a traffic jam. Lately every time I go to Wal-Mart, I think to myself, why did I come here?

•And my last thought: Budweiser is good. And a side-note to this one, it looks as though there is someone who works for Coors Brewery moving in. They drive a Coors van. I need to make friends with this newcomer. ;)

The highlight of my ebay career

I have an auction listed right now with 40 people watching it. FORTY!

Freshest Coors Light (outside of the brewery)...

This is a liquor store kiddie-corner from the brewery- loved the sign on the outside. I also forgot to mention that after the brewery tour, went to explore downtown Golden, CO. It's really quite cute and there is even a General Store with penny candy! I had to get a couple of my favorites- Mary Jane's, Pop Rocks, and Lemonheads- so yummy!

Face to Face with Buffalo Bill.

Another gorgeous weekend in Colorado. Springlike weather inspired the planning (and execution) of a tourist day. On Saturday, I visited Buffalo Bill's grave up near (or maybe on??) Lookout Mountain, which lies just west of Denver and is also host to a slew of radio towers. Quite interestingly, my mom had visited his birthplace in Wyoming many moons ago when she was on a family trip to Yellowstone as a little girl. The gravesite is located high above Denver and there are many lookout points to see the city and plains, and the Coors brewery- it's really an awesome view (if you can see past all of the radio towers!). Of course, I had to visit the giftshop where I picked up an awesome Buffalo Bill magnet and perused the countless tchatchkes (think plastic cap guns, Native American figurines, slices of trees with a lovely image of the Rockies decoupaged on, lots of polished rocks, shot glasses...).

After paying my respects to Buffalo Bill, we headed to the Coors Brewery for a tour and, more importantly, free samples. I got to taste the freshest Coors Light available during the middle of the tour, then at the end of the tour, there is a tasting room where you get 3 free beers. I had to have another fresh Coors Light, then also had a Hard Punch Zima slushie, and a Blue Moon. So fresh, cold, and tasty. Good stuff. And of course, I hit up the gift shop to pick up a magnet in commemoration of my consumption of the freshest Coors Light in the world.

Oh gosh, how could I not mention my Friday night. My friend Kimberly had her birthday celebration at the Purple Martini downtown; quite a swank little bar. Apparently our reservations got screwed up, so they placed us in the infamous Ladies Lounge, which I heard so much about after Danielle was here on New Year's Eve. This is like a little side bar with it's own door, seats, benches, etc. that is right next to the Women's bathroom. Normally only women are allowed in this area, but this night, they let the boys in... I had planned on trying a few different types of martinis, but after having my first "pink panties" martini, I was hooked. My pink panties (the drink not the undergarment) also led to many dirty jokes for the rest of the evening. Topped the night off with dinner at Wazee Supper Club. Had some great pizza there and my only non-girly drink of the night, a beer.

Sunday was also beautiful outside. Relaxed for most of the day, took a walk, and even got to watch my alma mater, Bradley University, get slaughtered in the Missouri Valley Conference championship basketball game vs. SIU. It was so sad to see them do so badly, but I was thrilled to actually get to watch them on TV for once and they were oh-so-close to getting into the NCAA tournament. Actually, they still do have a chance from what I understand, but their performance in Sunday's game most likely nullified that opportunity.

I heart flip-flops.

With yesterday and today reaching temperatures over 70 degrees, I decided it was time to bust out my flip flops. Have I ever mentioned my love of my flip flops? Not all of my pairs of flip flops. There is just one pair that I have this incredible affection towards. I bought them in a sweet surf shop in Monterey, CA a couple years ago, after discovering on my Californian vacation that I had brought no comfortable summery shoes. I did bring a cute, new pair of sandals that I had never worn before on this California trip. I promptly threw them out in the hotel garbage after hiking my sorry ass up and down the streets of San Francisco one afternoon in search of a FedEx... And my feet put up with a lot. For me to throw out an incredibly cute pair of shoes, well, they just had to be THAT painful. Where was I... Oh yes, back to my favorite flip flops. So I buy these simple flip flops at this surf shop in Monterey and immediately fell in love with them. The rest of the vacation I think I planned all of my outfits around these flip flops. Even deeming it perfectly acceptable to wear army green flop flops with a nice khaki skirt out to dinner one night. I think I even donned them at the all-day Coachella festival in the desert. And, well, you get the point, I think my other shoes felt slighted that trip, not making any appearances on my feet south of Moneterey.

Let's backtrack here... Since I'm already writing incessently about my flip flops, I might as well give a little background information. I never liked flip flops till I met 'the ones'. Let's face it, the little thing that goes in between your big toe and the little piggy who stayed home is normally uncomfortable. These flip flops totally changed my outlook on flip flops in general. I now knew what to look for in a flip flop. I knew how to appreciate flip flops that treated my feet right.

What was my whole point of posting today??? Oh yes, it's so incredibly beautiful out today and I have been just loving wearing my flip flops and having the windows open and breathing the fresh spring-like air. I love it. I went out to grab some lunch and ate it outside taking in the sun and amazingly warm breezes. Springtime is the best. I shouldn't get too used to this though, as I'm sure it'll be back to cold and snow soon enough....

Such a productive weekend...

Anyone who knows me well knows my love of liquor stores. I thought I had it all, with DiCarlo's in Westmont, IL. Then I moved to Colorado and searched and searched for a liquor store and happened upon Superior Liquors off of 36 in Superior. I thought nothing could get better than Superior. Well, that was until I was introduced to Applejack's this weekend. This place is enormous- huge selection AND great prices. My allegiances have changed yet again...

No worries: the liquor store was not the highlight of my weekend. I also visited Sonic, my favorite drive-in fast food restaurant. And had crab legs for the first time ever, and they were soo yummy. No, the crab legs were not from Sonic, had those at a restaurant in Larimer Square, Del Mar's Crab House. Eating crab legs is so much fun. You get to crack, rip, and tear at the legs and eat with your fingers. And during all of this excitement, crab meat, shell, and juices are flying all over the place: hitting neighboring tables, projecting into my hair, hitting your chair, the floor, etc. I definitely want to eat crab legs more often now. I almost think I like crabs more than lobster. Then again, I have not had lobster in a really long time.

I also hit up the Denver Art Museum, aka the DAM. It's partially under construction, so all of their exhibits and collections were apparently not on display. It's definitley no Art Institute of Chicago, but they have quite a collection there. I started out checking out their European and American art, a meager grouping of no more than 100 paintings. Next, checked out the Asian art and then Pre-Columbian art art. These collections were vast and outnumbered the European and American pieces about 20 to 1. No kidding.

As I reflect back on the weekend, my 'productiveness' involved lots of booze, food, and art. Doesn't get better than that. ;)

Livin' on a Prayer

There is something to be said for the stamina and longetivity of a band that is still able to pack an enormous arena more than 20 years after their first big hit. Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Bon Jovi concert at the Pepsi Center with my friend Danielle. Admittedly, I didn't know what to expect, aside from some big hair and lots of denim. Oh yes, acid washed denim. And I was not disappointed. Let's say the Pepsi Center holds 50,000 people; a minimum of 40,000 were women, the rest a combination of male Bon Jovi superfans (and I have a photo to post later...) and on the other end of the spectrum: bewildered men that begrudgingly accompanied their girlfriends and wives.

Aside from the attendees, the production of the show was quite the spectacle. Granted, I am quite used to attending small, no-frills indie shows, so I think any concert at an arena as large as the Pepsi Center would be visually shocking; however, this was unbelievable. The lights, the huge screen, the video cameras, Bon Jovi suddenly appearing on mini-stages in the middle of the crowd... I have to say I was thoroughly impressed. Now, I know some people I told that I was going to see Bon Jovi kind of chuckled and were probably secretly (wait... no, publicly) mocking me, but I have to say it was really an awesome concert. He played all of the hits, we sang along, and let's face it, Jon Bon Jovi is looking pretty damn good for being 44 years old. Here are some photos from the show. I apologize for the poor quality, just had my cell phone with me.





I was truly looking forward to some fantastic people watching, but I honestly was so enthralled with the show that only a few people caught my attention. In general, there was a lot of big hair. There also were a lot of late 30's/early 40's women scantily clad drunk women. But, they were having so much fun, you can't fault them for that. Perhaps when I'm 40 years old I'll still be attending Radiohead shows; I hope I only have as much fun as these women did last night. The cherry on top was the superfan a few rows behind us. He was decked out in acid washed jeans, a mohawk style wig, bandana, and a jean jacket. He was too cool to wear a Bon Jovi jean jacket (unlike the INXS superfans) to the Bon Jovi concert, so on the back was an image in tribute to another band. Here's a pic of the superfan...

I'm Rich, Biotch...

Last night, I went to see Dave Chappelle at the Paramount Theater. Quite an experience, as he's touring with some of his 'Block Party' entourage. The opening comedian was decently good, though it was hard to focus on him due to the group of 4 twentysomethings that were seated directly in front of us (more on them later). Dave Chappelle came on next and the next 2 hours entailed him performing, which was great, and several other acts dotted throughout the show (Erykah Badu, some DJ, and some other rapper guy that has performed on the Chappelle show a few times). It was actually a bit disappointing because Dave only really performed a total of maybe 45 minutes. The set from Erykah Badu, which I was sort psyched to see, was a bit... hmmm. What's the word? Oh yeah, boring. Not that she doesn't have a fantastic voice. She does. Not that she isn't adorably cute. She is. Just that all of her songs went from one semi/potentially cool part to another with no hooks or climax. I kept waiting for each song to get really good and it just didn't.

Oh, so these twentysomethings in front of us. Oh wait, I'm a twentysomething. Oh well... They were quite a combination. We had the hippie boy that smelled like a skunk, an Asian gangsta DJ type of dude, and two girls that were somewhere in between and it looked like they hadn't brushed their hair in a few days. These people, who I might add were not sitting on the end of an aisle, got up throughout the evening a minimum of 20 times. No joke. I don't know if any of them really even saw the show. The hippie boy, also, when he was seated, could not sit still. He was constantly sitting forward, to the left, to the right, talking to his Asian gansta buddy, chatting it up with one the girls. And did I mention he was directly in front of me for part of the night? This meant that I had to do the same thing. When he leaned to the left, I went to the right. When he leaned to the right, I leaned to the left. I'm sure I was driving the people behind me nuts as well! Midway through the performance, the Asian gangsta guy got kicked out. Not sure why. Though he did get busted earlier in the night for taking photos on his camera phone. One of the girls almost left when he got kicked out, she grabbed her belongings, made the two guys sitting on the end of the aisle get up for the fiftieth time and then 10 minutes later she was back (and the two guys had to get up for the fifty-first time). I just don't think I can even justifiably describe the ridiculousness of these four...

For those of you who have not heard, Rob and I have broken up and he has moved back to Chicago. As this is a situation that obviously involves another aside from me, I wish to leave it at that in a public forum such as this.

Watching The Sopranos like it's my full-time job.

I just realized last night, after watching the season 4 premiere of The Sopranos, episode 40, I have spent 40 hours of my life in the past month watching The Sopranos. It really and truly is an addiction.

On the auction block

I created a little painting over the past month or so to donate to a charity auction AIGA is having this week... The theme was love or romance, or had to include a heart. Something along those lines. Above is my piece, entitled "emergence", and just thought I would share...

Worst TV Show Theme Song Award...

Goes to: Shop 'til you drop. You know the awesome game show where you get to shop. Not as cool as Supermarket Sweep, yet just as cheesy and fully equipped with the uber dorky, way-too-happy host. Wow, this is possibly more painful to listen to than the Kraft Crumbles' commercial take on EMF's Unbelievable (who would have guessed, they changed the words to "Crumbelievable"). Do you ever wonder who dreams up these jingles and pitches the idea without busting up laughing to the client? Even more intriguing are the singers and musicians that create the jingle. How do they make it through the recording process with a straight face? And the person that gives approval to actually air the theme song or commercial: how do they sleep at night???

Best People Watching EVER!

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the INXS concert at the Denver Convention Center. Yes, you heard me correctly, the Convention Center.

First the background: My friend, Kimberly, had an extra ticket because her friend bailed on her, and for some reason was having immense trouble filling the vacant seat; Jackie to the rescue. Not only did I think a night out on the town sounded fantastic, but I was moderately interested in seeing INXS in concert, despite the lack of Michael Hutchence.

Kimberly and I arrived at the Convention Center quite early, about an hour before the show was beginning, as she wanted to see the opening band, which was the runner-up on "Rockstar: INXS". (Sidenote about my comma/quotation mark punctuation later... because it's bugging me.) My first indication that this concert would be, to say the least, interesting was the fact that it was at the Convention Center. The Denver Convention Center is an enormous building, similar to McCormick Place (though not THAT big); I have been there a couple times, once for the Beer Festival and another time for the Ski Expo. I couldn't imagine where this show was going to be held, but little did I know, there is a huge Lecture Hall in the Convention Center that serves as a venue for concerts. We walk into the Convention Center and our people watching officially begins. There's a wide variety of people perusing the merch booth, buying drinks from the wedding reception-like bars set up all over the lobby, and purchasing spiked smoothies from the Maui Wowi booth. (Oh yes, I did just say Maui Wowi.)

We grab a couple beers as the fun is truly beginning. I spot a couple (either a boyfriend/girlfriend or mom/son combo) wearing what appeared to be matching homemade INXS jean jackets. They were glorious. I speculate Mom, with permed hair, took the new INXS album artwork and iron-on transferred to a t-shirt and sewed it to the back of the jackets. Around the album artwork as well as the top-back seam, she bedazzled red sequins to accent the artwork and complete the look. Oh yes, the son/boyfriend/man had a bedazzled jacket as well. I debated following them to get a picture of this up close, however that proved to be unnecessary because when we walked into the lecture hall, they were up in the front row, not too far from us. Though, sadly the photo I took of them seated did not come out very well as it was dark in there.

Once we found our seats (which was a difficult task, as the employees of the convention center were completely clueless), we sat down and were trying to figure out the attendees of the show. See, there were quite a few people there that appeared to be over 45 years old, a few people that were more-or-less my age, and then the 9 year olds that came with their parents. We really were attempting to decipher how these much older adults had come to the decision to attend an INXS show. Let's take the lovely grandmother in the row behind us decked out in, what she was probably thinking, was a cute J. Lo-esque pink sweatsuit with the word "meow" across the chest. Also, the 45 year old bleach-blonde woman with snakeskin pants and a revealing crocheted tank top (I have to be truthful, the woman DID have the body to pull off snakeskin pants, it was just the fact that she probably pulled them out of closet retirement for the first time in 15 years). And for all of you Seinfeld fans, the woman donning a puffy shirt. Wow, I'm noticing a pattern here: nearly all of the, let's call them, interesting people were women. The biggest thing I noticed about the men at the show was that they were predominantly unattractive and wearing terribly oversized clothing.

On to the actual show... Opening for INXS, Marty Casey and the Lovehammers with their ultra-cheesy, super hook-y single, "Trees". Oh I must find the words for this to post, because it is just oh-so ridiculous and it was absolutely frightening the amount of people that knew the words for this song and were 'rocking' out to it. Ah, yes, here we go:

"It will be you and me up in the trees
And the forest will give us the answers
It will be you and I up in the sky
It's a combination for disaster"

I think seeing that pretty much sums up their performance, though I'll continue...

Highlights of their performance included seeing Marty Casey's asscrack one too many times in his low-rider, super-tight, black rockstar pants and me questioning when one song was ending and another beginning, as they all sounded exactly the same. Did I mention Marty Casey's obnoxious hand motions and dances with the microphone?? To say the least, I was unimpressed, though I must say he did get a crowd of 50+ year old people going. Also of amusement was the old lady next to Kimberly who had a 7 foot tall person in front of her and kept leaning in front of Kimberly (and not her husband) to get a glimpse of Marty.

Next up, the INXS set which was actually very good. They played a ton of their old stuff and just a few new songs, I got to see along to quite a few songs like "New Sensation", "Original Sin", and "Mystify". Although, I think Kimberly was not impressed with my knowledge of the words, as she knew pretty much every single song and all of the lyrics to ALL of the songs. J.D. Fortune (I keep on wanting to call him J.D. Powers!), INXS' new lead singer is quite a cutie, and despite being pretty sick for the show sang decently (or were we hearing a backing track??) and put on a good show.

I don't have much bad to say about INXS' performance, except it was quite weird to see them performing sans Michael Hutchence. The biggest thing we noticed was that 30%+ of the concert attendees did not know the old, classic INXS tunes. They got all fired up when they played anything from the new album and the "Rockstar: INXS" show, so I think they were just going to the show because they were reality TV show fans. It made me sad to be in the same room as so many reality TV freaks. Okay, I'll admit, I am a reality TV freak at times, but let the record state: I DO NOT attend concerts or events because of reality TV.

The end. ;)

OH! I almost forgot my little comment about commas and quotation marks. It was just going to bug me because I know some people that read my blog are grammar-geeks (and you know who you are), and I was thinking that these people may think that I was incorrectly punctuating my blog, thus thinking me an idiot.

I prefer saying this:
I am currently reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
rather than this:
I am currently reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Apparently, in the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic. I am much more worldly than US education allows and abide by the logical grammatical rules of the United Kingdom. "In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic. In American style, then, you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design." But in England you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design". The placement of marks other than periods and commas follows the logic that quotation marks should accompany (be right next to) the text being quoted or set apart as a title."

Just had to get that off of my chest. ;) And, I do know I am also one of those grammar-geeks.

Chasing the Sunset

Drove back the 990 miles to Denver today... Took about 13 hours driving time, 14 hours with stops. Not too bad, especially since I don't drive that terribly fast. Oh and I think I deserve a nice white-trash trucker hat; I drove the entire drive back. Highlights of the drive included the "World's Largest Truck Stop: Iowa 80" and eating some taco bell in the town where John Wayne was born.

You know how painful it is driving west while the sun is setting? I felt like it took about 3 hours for the sun to really set. After the sun did set, though, I really despise driving at night. With my glasses or not, I still feel like I can't see as much as I want. Luckily, on 76 into Denver, the road was pretty much dead, so I had the highbeams going to help me out. Anyways, made it back safe and sound and Mikey is so happy to see us.

Well, I'm off to watch some more Soprano's...

Hot Dog!

I finally reached the mecca of hot dogdom... Hot Doug's. If you have a thing for encased meats, this is the place to be. I've heard of this place many times before, and my friend Todd talked so highly of it in the past, so when we went downtown to visit him and Kristin, we made a pilgrimage to the 'The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium'. Kristin was there a while back when foodtv was taping a special about it. She got to taste a few different dogs/sausages and was on TV. Well, it's an interent only show, but still way cool! I'll try to find the link to it to post. Anyways, you know if foodtv was there, it's gotta be cool. I ended up getting a Chicago Dog with all the fixings and some Duck Fat fries. YUM. Haven't been feeling too hot lately, but got to taste a bit of both and both were delicious.

Saturday night, went out with some friends to the Bolingbrook Golf Club bar. Now, out in suburbia, it's quite a task to find a decent bar that you aren't going to see all the people you went to high school with that you never wanted to see again. Typically, I'll hit up the 10th hole pub that is basically within crawling distance from my parents house, but there I usually bump into people from HS, or their parents. The other choices in this town are chain restuarants or crazy, white trash townie bars. The Golf Club is at Bolingbrook's new golf course and the Clubhouse is absolutely beautiful. The upstairs is like a reception hall and the downstairs is a bar/grill. It's kind of funny because you have everyone from me in my jeans to people who were at an event upstairs in formal gowns. I have to say, though, that the golf club is now my favorite. (Though 10th hole pub will always be a standard...)

Productive? Me? Yes.

Yesterday, I finally took down the candy cane decorations on the balcony. It felt great to cross that one off my list. Plus it was a gorgeous day- near 60 degrees and sunny, though horribly windy (80 mph wind gusts in Boulder). I also took off the red wribbon on my wreath on the front door. I was having a hard time parting with my twelve dollar home depot wreath, so I figured taking the red wribbon off would be the solution to elimination of the 'you still have Christmas decorations up???' comments.

As for work... Sent three semi-large projects off to print yesterday. It is always the best, yet most stressful, feeling to send something off like that. It's great because that means a project is off my plate, yet is stressful to me because, even though all art has been approved, I'm always worried about something going wrong in production. I never feel that 'sign of relief' until I get the production samples in the mail a few weeks later. That's just me being a worrywort, I suppose. Wonder how 'worrywort' originated. I sort of feel like an old lady for using that term, however Radiohead has a song entitled 'worrywort,' so that makes me feel better.

Well, I managed to pack all my clothes and shoes for my Chicago trip in my backpack. I must say I am quite proud of myself, and you should be proud of me as well, if you've ever seen how I have traveled in the past! I'm heading off this afternoon for the airport and flying Southwest into Midway (eek!). Will be spending the weekend there, then driving back to Denver on Monday. Can't wait to drive my car and I think now that I am keeping it, I must give my Passat a name. I'm not quite sure why I never named him (or her??); however, I have always named previous cars. My first car was Abe the Accord, he was trusted and true, just as his name implies... Then came George. He was a CRV, and for some reason I named him after the salesman that I purchased the car from. I think I was quite fond of George (the salesman, not the car, though I was fond of the car as well) because he wore a nice suit and very nice shoes. They must have been Italian or something. George the car, on the other hand, though I liked him at first, he was missing something. I think, perhaps, I am just a car person, and not a mock-SUV girl. So, point being, anyone have some suggestions on names for my Passat? Maybe I'll have a naming ceremony and party for my car upon his/her arrival to Colorado.

Busy as a bee

Ah yes, similies. Takes me back to grade school and thinking up countless similies and then in turn, learning about metaphors, and then determining the difference between the two. (Remember the 'like' and 'as'???) Interestingly, it was brought to my attention a few weeks back that wikipedia has a fabulous entry on similies. Might I share with you some similies regarding the act of being busy. Or getting busy? Either way, here they are (courtesy of wikipedia):

busier than a cat covering shit on a tile floor
busier than a one-armed paper hanger
busier than a one-legged man in an ass kickin contest
busy as a bull's ass in fly season
busy as a beaver
busy as a cat covering shit on a hot tin roof
busy as a cat on a hot tin roof
busy as a one-armed barber with the hives

I have to say, I had never heard of these cat covering shit ones. Though they make me laugh outloud. Almost as funny as Todd's "can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a ______" sayings. And maybe someone can explain the one-armed paper hanger to me, i don't quite get that one.


TV reviews of the day:

Watched portions of American Idol tonight: disappointing. Not nearly as good as previous auditions. Also watched a bit of Love Monkey: looks promising. Currently watching a show about the Denver Film Festival that is outlining some cool docs and indie films. One of note: "Combover: The Movie" this looks absolutely hilarious.

Oh, so the whole similie thing was brought on because I was very busy today. I mean, not too busy, but busy enough to work late and feel like I needed to write some lists to remind me of things. Aside from working today, I've been tending to the needs of my, as of late, very 'needy' cat. Instead of having my laptop on my lap, Mikey is on my lap purring away and looking especially cute with one paw over his eyes and his one black whisker quite evident. Also, had a fantastic lunch with my friend, Brian, at one of the pho restaurants by my place. This was my first time having pho and it was quite delicious. Kristin, I know you'll be so proud and happy of me to have finally tried this lovely bowl of goodness. (Post)Preamble: After moving here and exploring the area, I was baffled by the number of pho restaurants. They are all called "Pho ##"-insert a couple numbers or three after the pho. It's most definitely hard to keep them straight and quite a quandry for a little suburban white girl like myself to figure out. Thus, I asked my very knowledgable and hip, city-living friend, Kristin, to fill me in and she so graciously told me about it and told me I HAD to have it. Well, that was many moons ago, but more importantly, I have finally eaten pho. While on the subject of food, had a salad with that garlic-lemon dressing on it and a piece of garlic-cheese bread for dinner. Soo yummy.

So, I must confess, I've been having dreams about Tony Soprano. Not those kind of dreams. Just dreams with him in it.

My oh my, the mutt (aka Mikey) has some kicking kitty breath. What does one do about kitty breath? They make no kitty toothbrushes. And, quite ironically, I had given him some "Tartar Control" kitty treats a couple hours ago.

Meet Henri...

Meet my chia pet, Henri. Say it the French way, it's so much more sophisticated, as a chia pet deserves such a classy name. He's named after Henri Matisse, and also after Henry Moore, one of my favorite sculptors, yet he doesn't spell it Henri, that's alright. I started growing him just about a week ago, and though he's a little sparse now, I have a vision of chia glory for him in the near future.

Note: his butt 'hair' is coming in especially thick. Reminded me of Mr. Lorek for some reason. ;) Why, you ask? Our lovely friend, Mike, tends to drop his drawers whenever he's drunk and in public! We still love ya, Mike, though I did have to delete several absolutely frightening pics from my iPhoto that someone took with my camera at our last BWW soiree.